Size matters: Stockholm clinic launches penis measuring tape

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Forget reassurances to insecure teens: A Stockholm youth health clinic is handing out special measuring tapes to young men and asking them to size up their penises, it said on Monday (Nov 30).

The clinic, which caters to youths up to age 23, said the initiative was aimed at turning around declining condom use in Sweden and making sure young men buy the right size condom to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases.

The specially-designed measuring tape, which measures circumference and not length, will be handed out free of charge at the clinic as of Dec 1.

"A common reason for a condom slipping off or breaking during sex is that you've bought the wrong size... You have to measure the circumference of the penis when erect, not the length," a male nurse at the clinic, Mr Eddie Sandstrom, says in a podcast on its website.

"On our measuring tape you get the measurement in millimetres and a few recommendations for condom types that are suitable," he says.

Sandstrom told AFP that other awareness campaigns had not succeeded in getting more Swedes to use condoms.

"Gonorrhea is on the rise, and the number of chlamydia cases is not falling despite many awareness campaigns," he said.

He said he hoped the new initiative would be a hit. Five young men had on Monday (Nov 30) already stopped in to ask for a measuring tape, a day before the product was even launched.

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